Five Baltimore Orioles stats that stand out this week

Nate McLouth steals second base in the eighth inning as Jose Altuve is late on the tag.

Nate McLouth steals second base in the eighth inning as Jose Altuve is late on the tag. (Bob Levey, Getty Images)

Matt VenselThe Baltimore Sun

Each Wednesday, blogger Matt Vensel will highlight five statistics that really mean something for the Orioles.

.368 -- Manny Machado’s batting average on the road in 2013.

Machado is batting .274 in 28 games at Camden Yards this season with 10 doubles, two triples and a .425 slugging percentage. That’s not too shabby for a 20-year-old. But when batting beyond Baltimore, the third baseman has been absolutely ridiculous. In 30 road games, Machado has a .368 average with 16 doubles -- he added another in Tuesday’s 4-1 victory against the Houston Astros -- and a .574 slugging percentage. Four of his five home runs have come on the road, too. Manny must love staying at fancy hotels or something.

After getting slapped around in his first two big-league starts, Gausman, the team’s first-round pick in 2012, fared much better in Sunday’s win over the Detroit Tigers. The biggest reason? He kept the ball down. Gausman recorded 12 ground-ball outs in six innings and just five outs on fly balls (he also struck out five Tigers batters). In his first two starts combined, he recorded 15 ground-ball outs compared to 20 fly-outs. By keeping the ball down, he was able to limit the damage done by the Tigers. He allowed just one earned run on five hits, though the one run did come on a home run.

Davis hit his major-league-leading 20th home run of the season on Sunday, the team’s 57th game of the season. In the process, he became the second-fastest Orioles hitter to reach 20 home runs, according to Elias (Brady Anderson did it in 49 games in 1996). But it's not just the number of home runs by Davis that is impressive. The distance on some of his long balls have been ridiculous. His home run Sunday traveled 415 feet, which tied him with Justin Upton of the Atlanta Braves for the most home runs over 400 feet. Both have hit 14 this season, according to ESPN Stats and Info.

.105 -- batting average for Orioles pinch hitters in 19 at-bats.

Before pinch hitter Danny Valencia delivered with an RBI single in the seventh inning of Sunday's win over the Tigers, the Orioles had been just 1-for-18 in pinch-hitting situations. That clutch hit by Valencia increased their average in those situations to .105, the third-lowest baseball and nearly half as much as the American League average of .200. No team has fewer pinch hits this season, but then again, manager Buck Showalter hasn’t turned to a pinch hitter very often. Through 58 games, the Orioles have only used pinch hitters for 19 at-bats. Only the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians have used them more sparingly.

McLouth stole two bases Tuesday night, bringing his season total to 21 stolen bases, tops in the American League (tied with Boston's Jacoby Ellsbury) and second to only San Diego Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera in the majors. But what's more impressive is that he has only been caught stealing once. With a success rate of 95.5 percent, McLouth has the highest success rate among all players with more than 10 steals this season.

Bloggers note: Have a nifty stat you want to share? E-mail me at matt.vensel@baltsun.com or contact me on Twitter at @mattvensel. If I end up using it, I’ll be sure to give you a nice plug on the blog.